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Busacca: “One must learn to accept a loss”

A day after Germany blamed their exit from the under-17 World Cup on poor refereeing, FIFA on Monday stood by the match officials, saying a beaten team should learn to accept the loss. "I always think that in life we have to learn to accept the loss and respect (a decision). Mistakes are part of the game. Referees take a decision based on what they see and what they think. And they do it in an honest way. In Sunday's match, the referee gave his 100 percent and we are very happy with his performance," Massimo Busacca, who is the head of FIFA refereeing department, said on Monday. "What others want to say they can. But I also know that my family has taught me to accept a loss when that is the case," the former Swiss international referee added. Busacca's comments came following Germany coach Christian Wueck's allegation that referee Jair Marrufo's decisions went against him during their 1-2 loss to Brazil in the quarterfinal at Salt Lake Stadium.

"We played well in the first half while Brazil were good after the change of ends. But the difference was the refereeing. There is no problem in losing a game but the way we lost it was hard to digest," Wueck said, insisting that they were denied another penalty before Paulinho struck the match-winner for Brazil in the 77th minute. Germany took the lead in the first half, via a penalty, but Brazil came back strongly in the second half to seal the deal. Asked to comment on the Germany coach's viewpoint, Busacca replied: "It's not my habit to criticise. Everybody saw the game and can judge on his own. If you had a blatant situation yesterday, you can say. But if it's not the case, everyone can say what he wants and you have to respect his view."

The VAR challange

With FIFA president Gianni Infantino wanting to introduce video assistant referees (VAR) at next year's World Cup, referees are expected to brace for the new challenge. But Busacca - who officiated in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups - believes that technology can't be a substitute to skills. VAR involves two assistant referees watching the action on the screen and making the match referee aware of possible mistakes. "Technology cannot substitute your skills. Technology can only be a help for us. The day we think technology can substitute human decisions it will kill football, referees and everything", he pointed out.